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ARS Eagle
The ARS Eagle (CV-1, now MV-1) was the first aircraft carrier of the Adanese Navy, which served from 1946-1953, and again from 1956-1969. Service history In 1941, the National Defense Consortium saw a need for the Navy to be able to provide forward-deployed airpower. The Adanese government managed to enlist the help of more advanced allied nations to assist in the design of a single ship to carry out the role, which was completed in 1945 by the Navy's East Norfolk Shipyard, which is now owned by Neptune MC. Early years and Civil War In 1946, the Eagle was commissioned by Prime Minister Zafer Saygun, and loaded with Grumman F4Fs and Westland Wyverns, which were received two years prior for the ship. She was stationed at the Navy's main base at Norfolk, where she remained until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1949. For the first few months of the war, she primarily aided in the protection of Alexander City from Eastern bombardment, until the Adanese Navy received a handful of surplus Douglas SBD dive bombers, upon which the Eagle began to see deployments to bombard Eastern coastal areas. Without much in the way of opposing naval forces, this was done rather successfully until 1953. Sinking On 21 September 1953, while returning to base after a successful mission of destroying a chain of enemy installations, the Eagle encountered the Eastern vessel Krake, a semi-restored Adanese submarine that was lost to artillery fire off the eastern coast in 1951. With it being a poorly-hidden fact that the Krake had a poor battle record with the East, the Eagle and her two escorts gave only small amounts of defensive fire and sped up in an attempt to outrun the sub. However, the Krake shot off four torpedos at the carrier. The Eagle managed to evade the first, and the second failed to detonate after clipping the stern, but torpedos 3 and 4 struck the ship's starboard side, severely crippling her. At this, the escorts fell back to engage the Krake, during which she managed to get another shot into the Eagle, bringing her down in the shallow water southwest of Fethiye before being hit by artillery in her sail. The sailors of the Eagle abandoned ship, with crew being picked up by the escorts, and pilots carrying away as much weaponry as possible with their aircraft. One of the pilots, upon spotting the Krake retreating, swung around and released a single torpedo before heading for dry land. The torpedo struck the sub's port stern, sending her to the bottom with no survivors. Throughout the rest of the war, the Adanese government sent out regular patrols to ensure the East were not lurking around the ship. Post-war Immediately after the civil conflict, and Adana now in a cold war with the East, plans were made to construct two new aircraft carriers to replace the Eagle and bulk up the Navy's fighting ability. However, the plans for the ships were beyond anything that the Navy had attempted before, being completely state-of-the-art and, of course, expensive. At a GNA panel on the matter, Parliamentarian Ismail Vaşak had quipped, "It would be cheaper to raise the Eagle." As the Navy had known from its patrols, the Eagle had actually remained in fairly excellent condition in the shallow water, and small motorboats had actually been used to go into the ship's hangar bay on occasions, leading to the Naval Research Institute to conduct a classified-for-the-time-being feasibility study of such a project. It was deemed that it was, in fact, cheaper to raise the Eagle than to construct a new carrier. Thus, funding was approved for one new aircraft carrier (the Hasan Erkan, which Vaşak was later asked to sponsor), and the salvage of the Eagle. The salvage operation was completed in March of 1955, and the Eagle was moved to drydock at her former homeport, Norfolk. Various repairs and upgrades were made to her before she was refloated and recommissioned as an active naval vessel, retaining her name and pennant number (despite a short-lived movement to have her re-introduced as the "ARS Phoenix, CV-2"), on 2 May 1956. Her second service was rather uneventful, but her continued presence as an active warship was a huge point of pride for the Adanese people. In 1962, she was sent in as an escort to resolve the MV Yurt incident. On 19 April 1969, the Eagle was laid up at Norfolk Reserve Yard, to be decommissioned on 1 August and intended to be sold for scrap. However, several historical and military groups protested the scrapping of a vessel with such a past, and lobbied to purchase the ship with funds raised by their "United Eagle Campaign" to have the ship restored as a museum. Their motion passed, and the UEC took full control of the ship in 1971. Museum ship The Eagle was towed to Port Sandecker, where she was partially restored to original specifications and opened to the public on 2 May 1973. The Eagle became a popular tourist attraction in the area, and the city eventually assisted in her upkeep. However, things began to see a downturn in the early 1990s, and the city pulled out of the venture. The Eagle Preservation Society sought refuge for the ship in nearby Port Pitt, hoping to have the ship moved to a wharf near the naval base. However, the government there denied their request, and the Eagle eventually found herself up for sale. In 1997, Secretary of National Defence Kemal Talley made a surprise announcement that the Eagle had been bought back by the NDC for the Naval Historical Bureau. Press releases soon followed, stating that the ship's museum status would remain intact, its engines would be restored to full operational ability (actually completely replaced, the Eagle's engine rooms were extensively modernised), and the vessel would travel the Adanese coastline throughout the year. Funding for the endeavour came primarily from Alexander Enterprises, which promises indefinite contributions for the ship's upkeep. She was restored at Neptune Maritime Construction (the same yard in which she was built, and incidentally in the same drydock in which Talley's yacht would be built 10 years later), and established her current annual schedule in 2011: Izmir in January and February, Port Pitt in March and April, Norfolk in May and June, Fethiye in July and August, Port Nimitz in September and October, and Oured in November and December. The ship was also given a complement of vintage fighter aircraft from her era for display on deck, including a few of her original planes. Since 2012, the Eagle has hosted an onboard car show in each of the cities it visits, with the biggest being in Fethiye. This was in conjunction with the Kemal Talley Aviation & Automotive Museum, which opened near New Millington that April. Category:Ships of the Adanese Navy Category:Museums